10 Best and Worst Cars for Depreciation - Page 4 - GreenHybrid

twuelfing · #31 (**permalink**) 01-18-2007, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ag4ever

"It's easy to argue that "good stewardship costs money." It does. But it just may be the cost of lasting more than one cycle."

I agree 100% with this statement. There are way too many industries that feel the extra burden and cost for being an environmentaly aware person is not worth it. I am in construction, and we are one of the worst offending industries. We consume way too much to produce as little as we do. We have weekly trips to the landfill with multiple 40 yard dumpsters. While Toyota has a factory that has 0% landfill waste. That is right, the Georgetown plant does not produce any waste that goes to a landfill, they recycle everything in some form or fashon. They are able to do this with out huge cost impacts. If they can be a leader in this aspect, which does not immediatly help them with their #1 goal (producing cars) then all industries could strive for this.

In my industry, there is a new movement call Green Buildings. One of the problems I had with this was the amount of extra paperwork and management it requiered. This increased the cost of the project and thus made it less desirable for most owners. It also created more actual paper-paperwork. They have since changed the program so that now it actually reduces the paper consumed, and most things are electronic, but it still requires a lot of extra management which brings the cost up.

being green doesnt always imply extra costs. many times an initial investment is more than paid for in the long run. Investing in high performance buildings and technology has been demonstrated to have a positive effect on a companies bottom line. Examine the LEED building process for evidence of this.

SoopahMan · #32 (**permalink**) 01-18-2007, 01:55 PM

The Green Building thing is cool - when I lived in Boston an Ikea was built to the newer Green Building standards and they went for the full spec - which meant they went so far as to take all the ground displaced by the main building, and put it on the roof to minimize the number of trees lost and improve water runoff. It's a little bit like visiting a Hobbit hovel, but to someone's credit we can get trees growing on a roof.

Verifying standards like that in an efficient and effective manner is one of the hardest hurdles to cross when trying to advance an industry though, because most people think of what standards they'd like to apply, but ignoring a good enforcement strategy.

twuelfing · #33 (**permalink**) 01-18-2007, 02:03 PM

If Ikea build a LEED platinum building i would be shocked and very impressed. If your curious you can read about the standards that have to be achieved to obtain this here: http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=220

there is a great deal of good info in the specification books that can be found on that site.

ag4ever · #34 (**permalink**) 01-19-2007, 08:31 AM

I agree, platinum status is near ipossible to get (you have to document almost all products from original source materials, and the manufacturing, transportation, and installation must meet requirements). The design plays into the level of building you get, the site selection, the construction, the operation, etc...

LEED is not a one person responsibilty. My wife is also in construction, and she was part of a LEED project that WAs going for the Platinum status. I don't know what they finally got, but I don't think it was Platinum, I would bet it was Gold. (The project was the University of Texas Health Science center in Houston - School of Nursing.)

IMPO, it is an ugly building.

I also question some of the health implications of the design that was used. The air plenum is an access floor system where any fluids spilled would accumulate down there and cause potential mold issues.

There are many other items I disagreed with, like using reclaimed wood from oregon as wall paneling just to boost the LEED credits, when they could have left that off, and used a localy sourced green product. That would have had less of an impact on the environment from a transportation standpoint alone, but those thing are not taken into account.

I will agree that the LEED program is evolving, and they are doing better than when that project was commissioned.